Bill Tieleman is one of BC's best known communicators, political commentators and strategists.
Bill writes a politics column Tuesdays in 24 Hours newspaper and The Tyee online magazine.
Bill has been Communications Director in the B.C. Premier's Office and at the BC Federation of Labour.
Bill owns West Star Communications, a consulting firm providing strategy and communication services for labour, business, non-profits and government.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Burnaby, Surrey Shirk Responsibility to Help the Homeless

Homeless need shelters

Meanwhile, Vancouver made it a priority to create shelter
for those in need. What gives?

Pity the homeless in Burnaby or Surrey, because both
municipalities are avoiding their social responsibility by refusing to open
shelters for those in need.

Voters in those municipalities should be asking why. Why
are Vancouver, New Westminster and other cities in the region doing more than
their fair share while Burnaby and Surrey shirk their duties?

Sadly, it's unlikely that homelessness will be a major
issue in the Nov. 15 municipal elections in either city, but pressure should be
put on all candidates to do the right thing.

It is ironic that two of the most popular politicians in
Metro Vancouver -- Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan and Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts
-- are the ones declining to act on an obvious and pressing need.

Burnaby, astonishingly, has no homeless shelters at all,
and adamantly refuses to construct any, blaming the province for any problems.

And for the second year running, Surrey will not have a
winter shelter because city officials claim they can't find a location where neighbours
don't fear its presence.

Homeless just aren't mayor's concern

Burnaby Mayor Corrigan has been clear: the homeless are
just not his concern.

"Where some people worry about the indigent, the
homeless, I worry about the working poor. We need these people in our cities,
and we need to find a way to keep these people in our cities," Corrigan told a
local paper last year.

While no one should disagree with supporting the working
poor, Corrigan's comments seem particularly harsh. And he didn't stop there,
adding that: "The people [in shelters] are the impossible to house... so addicted
that all they worry about is the opportunity to feed their addiction, whether
it's alcohol, drugs or anything else."

Last week, Councillor Paul McDonnell of Corrigan's
Burnaby Citizens Association argued the
same position: "How are you going to cure homelessness if you can't cure
the person?" he said.

Others might ask, how do you cure a person when they have
no home? Those who help the homeless say a safe shelter is the first step.

'Homeless people are just people': Graves

Meanwhile, Surrey won't open a 40-bed winter shelter that
in 2012 provided shelter to 157 people over six months and helped nearly half
find long-term housing.

Why? "People are scared to have programs of that
magnitude in their community," Shayne Williams of Lookout Emergency Aid
Society told 24 Hours Vancouver last week.

My Vancouver business office is next door to a new
supportive housing unit that opened in 2012 thanks to the city, province and
the non-profit MPA
Society, and unfortunately some businesses and residents did oppose its
construction.

But luckily they were unsuccessful, and since its opening
residents of the Katherine Sandford Apartments have been no problem -- and lots
of people in need are getting help.

Former City of Vancouver advocate for the homeless Judy
Graves explained succinctly why some of my neighbours shouldn't have been
worried.

"It sounds alarming to move homeless people in, as
if homeless people were another kind of people," Graves said in 2012.

"But homeless people are just people who don't have
a home. And as soon as they have a home, they cease to be homeless people and
they start to look better... and will just become very indistinguishable from
the rest of the community. That always happens, and it will happen here,"
she continued.

Vancouver made it a priority

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, who I support, has been
criticized for setting his government a challenging goal of ending street
homelessness by 2015.

But Robertson made it his priority, and worked with the
province to open new shelters, buy single room occupancy hotels run by slum
landlords and turn them into decent, low-rent accommodation, create 600 new
social housing units opening this year, and pledged to keep trying.

Not in Burnaby. Not in Surrey.

High-sounding words blaming other levels of government
don't cut it for those in freezing cold, rainy weather who desperately need a
warm, dry place to stay, and a hot meal.

Obviously there must be safeguards and sensitivity to
community concerns when locating shelters.

But for big cities like Burnaby and Surrey to refuse to
accept their responsibilities to the neediest in our communities is heartless
and shameful.

2 comments:

At some point the province needs to assume the responsibility they off loaded when they got out of the social service "business". The province closed Riverview. They closed hospitals, hello el gordo. They sell buildings which could be used for housing and health care.

dealing with homelessness in many cases is more than just building a place for people to go at night. Now Surrey may have an attitude which has more to do with politics than money, but to expect any number of smaller municipal entities to build and maintain homeless shelters is just asking too much.

Cities in Canada have a lot of responsibilities but little authority. We are not like some American cities, such as New York and Chicago which have wide reaching powers, including taxing, on more than properties. Cities in B.C. aren't even permitted to run a deficit. The province, not so much.

Medical care is the responsibility of the province. It is time they assumed it. Much of the homelessness we see today, is based in medical needs not met. While B.C. premiers have stood around smiling about how low corporate taxes are, they haven't given a shit about homeless people, children living at 50% below the poverty line, etc.

Bill, don't "dump" on Burnaby or Surrey. its the province and federal government who need to step up to the plate.

Bill Tieleman and Senator Larry Campbell, former Vancouver mayor

Jim Sinclair, Cindy Oliver, Ken Georgetti and Bill Tieleman

Bill Tieleman's coverage of the Basi-Virk/BC Legislature Raid Case praised by other journalists:

"This outstanding piece of journalism, in The Tyee, is the work of a journalist who has been deeply involved with this issue from the start and this article should be passed on as far and wide as possible."

"Bill Tieleman from 24 hours . . . . If you want to know about this trial and about this case, you have to read his blog – I mean, that’s just all there is to it – it’s required reading if you want to understand the BC Legislature Raid situation."

- Mike Smyth, columnist, The Province

"The Basi-Virk case....you’ve probably sat through more of these hearings and gone through more of the files and written about it than any other journalist in the province."

- Bill Good, host, The Bill Good Show, CKNW/Corus Radio Network

"Tieleman ...has done a first-rate job covering the trial."

- Paul Willcocks, columnist, the Victoria Times-Colonist

"Tieleman, who marries a considerable journalistic talent with one of the smartest political minds in the province, has been writing more web-exclusive material. And his coverage of the Basi-Virk trial is a must-read -- whether you're an insider or an outsider."

"24 Hours, the Vancouver paper that has been leading the coverage, as well as the hints of conspiracy in B.C."

- Norman Spector, columnist, Globe and Mail

"Although the major media in this circumstance has been giving the case significant coverage, Tieleman's reports on his blog have been outstanding.

The entire cut and thrust of legal wrangling and arguments has been covered and is accompanied by considered analysis.....His blog site coverage of the Basi-Virk trial is the most in depth treatment of one of British Columbia's biggest political scandals."

- Bill Bell, columnist, The North Shore News

"Mr. Tieleman has published online dispatches which, freed from the limitations of newsprint space or broadcast time, can run at length. They also remain available for those select readers who become obsessed with a case also known as Railgate.....

In another bizarre twist to a story with no shortage of them, Mr. Tieleman went to work one day in December only to discover his office had been ransacked. Bookcases had been tipped over and papers strewn, but nothing was missing.

To top it off, a press kit for the self-published novel The Raid, written by a retired military officer in Metchosin and featuring on its cover a photograph from the 2003 police raid, had been left in a conspicuous place."

- Tom Hawthorn, columnist, The Globe and Mail

Nobody has followed the Basi-Virk affair over its past five years with greater diligence than local journalist, Bill Tieleman....Tieleman deserves our thanks, a fistful of journalism awards and some merit citation for citizenship.